Joining me today is RAY HARKINS, vocalist of the Southern California melodic hardcore bands TAKEN, MIKOTO, &, most recently, BLOODGUILT.

Taken burned brightly from the late ‘90s until 2004, releasing one LP & 2 EPs on Goodfellow Records. They’ve since added a demos & b-sides compilation, a collected version of the first 3 records, & a 2018 EP titled With Regard To, on Other People Records. Links below.

Ray’s also run the DIY music & culture podcast, 100 WORDS OR LESS, for the better part of a decade, with over 670 episodes in the archive. He’s interviewed everyone from Ken Andrews & Page Hamilton to members of Fleshwater & Bleed to the Jesus Lizard, Quicksand, & dozens of other scene lifers crucial to the growth & expansion of underground music.

In this episode, we talk about the Big Bang of music culture in ‘90s Orange County, the shifting meanings of heaviness, & the waveform pathos of the EKG machine.

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TAKEN Bandcamp

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MIKOTO Bandcamp

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BLOODGUILT Bandcamp

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TIMESTAMPS:

02:29 // "The Most Feared Thing" (Taken)

03:32 // '90s Orange County

14:17 // LA/OC Venues

21:00 // Taken

27:58 // Hearing HUM: YPAA & DIH

36:45 // "If You are to Bloom" Discussion

01:13:05 // "Eternity was on Our Lips" (Taken)

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